Google in trouble?

October 22, 2005April 24, 2009

Google Print continues to suffer from mounting opposition from publishers and authors. It has been reported that it was sued by the Author’s Guild, but it is now also being sued by the Association of American Publishers, which includes some big names like McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education and Penguin.

In Europe the problem for Google Print is actually that it is attracting some competition from European governments. The French in particular are worried about the way the project is American-centric, and have vowed to initiate their own library digitisation programme unimaginatively called the “European digital library”. However, this may take some time, as the European Commission responded to a proposal by leaders back in April, they have asked for comments, and may actually start to implement them next June.

The other problem in the horizon for Google is that there could be some potential issues with companies that are using Adwords. The problem is that Office Depot has sued its rival Staples over their misuse of the Adwords in Google. Office Depot has an online subsidiary for office supplies called Viking Office Supplies. Staples paid Google to redirect customers to their site if they looked for “Viking”. Staples are being sued for trade mark infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and deceptive trade practices. This is most likely an isolated incident, but it could start an Adwords war that would decrease Google’s main source of income.

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TechnoLlama covers several Cyberlaw topics, with emphasis on open licensing, digital rights, software protection, virtual worlds, and llamas. While the blog tackles these issues in a light-hearted and nonchalant manner, some serious points filter through from time to time.

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